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My Thoughts Aren’t Divided Over This One!

Sometimes when you read a friend’s book and want to review it, you’re divided because you didn’t love it. Just ask Jennifer Eaton . . . she hated my first novel, 18 Things. But she’ll tell you it wasn’t because the writing that sucked *wipes forehead* . . . it just wasn’t her thing.

When Jessa Russo sent out an email to organize her blog tour for her new release, Divide, I signed up to review the book right away. I KNEW loving her story wouldn’t be a problem because she’s A*M*A*Z*I*N*G! She could publish a grocery list and I’d buy it 🙂

The Book Blurb:

From senior class president to dejected social outcast, with just the flick of a match.

After accusations of torching her ex-boyfriend’s home are followed by the mysterious poisoning of her ex-best friend, seventeen-year-old Holland Briggs assumes her life is over. And it is. But not in the way she thinks.

As Holland learns the truth about her cursed fate—that she is descended from the Beast most have only ever heard of in fairytales—she unites with an unlikely ally, good-looking newcomer Mick Stevenson.

Mick knows more about Holland’s twisted history than she does, and enlightening as it is to learn about, his suggestion for a cure is unsettling at best. Holland must fall in love with Mick in order to break the spell, and save their future generations from repeating her cursed fate. Having sworn off love after the betrayals of her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend, this may be difficult to accomplish.

Complicating things further for Holland and Mick, time runs out, and Holland’s change begins way before schedule. With Holland quickly morphing into a dangerous mythical creature, Mick struggles to save her.

Should they fail, Holland will be lost to the beast inside her forever.

My Thoughts:

Jessa didn’t disappoint! She really knows how to get a story under way. I immediately feel in love with Holland and Mick and cared about their happily ever after. There’s the triple D factor: desire, danger, and decision. Jessa nails them all with Divide.

Holland is a girl fighting for her identity, seeking truths about what’s happening to her. She wants Mick, but she’s conflicted because of the beast living inside her. At the same time, she’s recovering from a major heartbreak and betrayal (who isn’t in high school, right?). She’s trying to be good, but she’s lost control of herself. Other issues pop up that create plot twists I never saw coming. The whole time, you’re LIVING each moment as the characters experience it because of Jessa’s flawless writing. It’s a character-driven story and an action-driven plot, and it’s darn hard to pull off both but this book does! I loved the tension woven throughout this YA fantasy/fairytale redux. Every scene is manipulated for maximum impact.

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. It came too soon, and I wanted to see MORE of Holland and Mick.

If you want to find out more about Jessa, go here to visit her website (she also offers a full line of editing services! My publisher uses her for freelance & as my editor, I can vouch for her!)

What else has everyone been up to? I have to say I saw two great movies this past weekend. Friday I rented The Spectacular Now from the Redbox, starring Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller, a coming of age film based on the novel by Tim Tharp. Lovely indie film. Then Saturday the fam and I saw Rio 2. I must admit I wasn’t too excited to see this one, but I laughed more than the 3 kids with us (okay, 4 if you include hubs, hahaha).

Also, now that 18 Thoughts is written, I’ve had time to exercise again! YAY! I met two girlfriends for a six-mile walk on Saturday morning and was able to show them the door I’m convinced leads to Narnia. I’ve never tried to open it, but how cool is this door?!

I agree, reviewing a friends work is hard. I think there is before and after publication review issues and also is the review private or public. If a friend is asking for a critique before they send ms to agent or publisher, then I tend to be very open with my comments. If they are asking for a review after the book is published to go on a website etc, then I’m nervous. What if I don’t like it. I don’t want to post a bad review.

In fact, I never post a bad review for any book whether I know the author or not. My reasoning: I’ve read books where the first time I picked it up, I thought it was junk and tossed it aside. Then a year later, for whatever reason, I’ve picked up the same book and loved it. What if I’d posted a bad review? That would have been very unfair to the author. Hence I post for 3 stars or better.

What? Not enough explosions in 18 Things for our lovely Jennifer Eaton? 😉 I think her response highlights an issue with reviews, which is that EVERY book will have people who love it, and people who don’t care for it. (And that’s perfectly okay!)
Divided sounds awesome though!
And congrats on getting that six mile walk in. Looks like fun. 🙂

Well, there was the marshmallow scene, lol. I told her 18 Truths has a big one, but I think she’s done with me. I don’t think there are any explosions in 18 Thoughts though . . . may need to fix that before it comes out!

How sweet you are to take a critique so well! But that whole, it’s just not for me thing…it’s so for real! I’ve read books that I KNOW are marvelous books, but they just don’t sing to me. It’s like picking a favorite food, we all have different taste buds.
And speaking of food…can’t wit until Jessa gets that grocery list published 😉

Divide sounds great. It’s a win if you love the book, but if I thought it was so-so I’ll focus on the good parts, if I really didn’t like it I won’t review. Gotta say though that I haven’t read a book by a blog friend yet that I disliked – everyone’s so talented!

Jamie Ayres writes young adult coming of age stories by night and teaches young adults as a high school English teacher by day. When not at home on her laptop or at school, she can often be found at a local book store grabbing random children and reading to them. So far, she has not been arrested for this. Although she spent her youthful summers around Lake Michigan, she now lives in Florida with her prince charming, two children (sometimes three based on how Mr. Ayres is acting), and a basset hound. She really does have grandmothers named Olga and Gay but unlike her heroine, she's thankfully not named after either one of them. She loves lazy pajama days, the first page of a good book, stupid funny movies, and sharing stories with fantastic people like you. Her books include the three novels in her trilogy, 18 Things, 18 Truths, and 18 Thoughts. Visit her online via Twitter or Facebook.